Usage of shipping pallets made predominantly of corrugated paperboard material is widespread, primarily because of their low cost, recyclability, and cleanliness. Typically, such pallets employ longitudinally extending, transversely spaced stringers, which are made from folded pieces of corrugated paperboard. Such pallets also may employ transversely extending, longitudinally spaced decking members, which also are made from folded pieces of corrugated paperboard.
As described above, shipping pallets made predominantly of paperboard material, such as corrugated paperboard, are exemplified in Schmidtke U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,325, Quasnick U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,074, and Smith U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,991. Similar pallets made predominantly of corrugated paperboard are available commercially from Gate Pallet Systems, Inc. of Crown Point, Indiana, under its PAYLOAD trademark.
As exemplified in the Schmidtke, Quasnick, and Smith patents noted above, such a pallet may have a plurality of stringers extending longitudinally and having generally trapezoidal profiles, which define relatively wide upper edges and relatively narrow, lower edges, along with a plurality of decking members extending transversely through aligned apertures in the respective stringers, near the upper edges of the respective stringers. The decking members also may have generally trapezoidal profiles, which define relatively wide upper edges and relatively narrow lower edges. The upper edges of the decking members may be adhesively secured to generally horizontally extending outer panels of the respective stringers.
Other pallets of related interest are disclosed in Hermitage U.S. Pat. No. 2,728,545, Houle U.S. Pat. No. 3,131,656, Gifford U.S. Pat. No. 3,464,371, Childs U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,534, Roberts U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,822, Melli U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,377, British Patent Specification No. 996,516, German Patent No. 1,250,352, and Swiss Patent No. 512,367.
As exemplified in the Schmidtke, Quasnick, and Smith patents noted above, the relatively narrow lower edges of the stringers allow such a pallet to be smoothly conveyed via a roller conveyor employing transversely extending rollers if the respective stringers extend along the conveyor, across the rollers. However, if the stringers extend across such a conveyor, the lower edges of the stringers may be sufficiently narrow to drop between rollers of the conveyor so as not to allow the pallet to be smoothly conveyed via the conveyor. In some instances, particularly if the rollers are spaced widely from one another, it may be very difficult or even impossible to convey the pallet with the stringers extending across the rollers.
This invention has resulted from efforts to improve such a pallet employing stringers extending longitudinally and decking members extending transversely.